Five sport climbers of Mountaineering Association of J&K namely Shivani Charak, Ajay Deep Singh, Arun Deep Singh, Mrityunjay Sharma and Shilpa Charak have been selected in the Indian Sport Climbing team for participation in the Asian Youth Championship scheduled to be held at Bengaluru in December, 2019. They are among the 30 Indian climbers selected to participate in six categories (5 climbers in each category) for this continental competition. However, Mrityunjay has conveyed his inability to participate in this competition because of certain personal reasons. The selection for this prestigious continental competition has been made by Indian Mountaineering Foundation, New Delhi, the apex body for mountaineering and sport climbing in the country, on the basis of latest national ranking of climbers. While Shivani Charak is currently the top ranked sport climber of the country in the women category Shilpa is also among the top five climbers in her age group. Similarly, Ajay Deep Singh is top ranked and Arun Deep is ranked 4th in the country in the boys category. It may be mentioned here that both Shivani and Shilpa Charak are international climbers. While Shivani had her training at Switzerland, Slovania and Italy and has already participated in a number of international competitions including World Cup in 2017, Asian Cup at Bangkok and Asian Youth Championship at Chonqing, China in 2018. She has also been fully sponsored by the Government of China for five competitions in various cities of China during 2019. 19-years-old Shilpa Charak is also an accomplished climber who represented the country in World Youth Championship at Arco, Italy, last month. However, for Ajay Deep Singh and Arun Deep it will be their maiden international competition. Meanwhile, all the four J&K climbers will leave for Bhuvneshwar on 28th September for a month long first phase of training being organized from 1st to October 31,2019 for Indian climbers selected for the Asian Youth Championship, at the international standard Kalinga Sport Climbing Wall, the best climbing wall in India. It is pertinent to mention here that this year these five climbers of J&K were selected by IMF for participation in the World Youth Championship at Arco, Italy on no cost basis to IMF and though Mountaineering Association of J&K had requested the Government for sponsorship of these climbers there was absolutely no response from the Government and only Shilpa who could manage major portion of the finances on her own could be deputed for the prestigious competition. Similarly, Mrityunjay Sharma who was selected for the World Championship at Switzerland could not participate because of lack of funds. Meanwhile, Patrons of Tawi Trekkers J&K Ashwani Sharma, former MLA and Rahul Sharma, Chairman, Sprawling Buds ICSE School, Jammu, Zorawar Singh Jamwal, Secretary General Press Club, Jammu and Chairman, Team Jammu, Ram Khajuria and Shawetica Khajuria, General Secretary and Joint Secretary of Mountaineering Association of J&K and Prof Lalit Magotra, President Dogri Sanstha, Jammu have decided to honour these selected climbers at the Annual Prize Distribution of Tawi Trekkers J&K scheduled to be held at Press Club Jammu on September 28, 2019.
